Higley, Elmer Ellsworth

Elmer Ellsworth Higley (1867-1931), American Methodist minister, was born on July 6, 1867 in William County Ohio. His family moved to Crawford Country, Pennsylvania where he attended Conneautville High School, the Edinboro Normal School, and Allegheny College. Higley was later called to ministry and served his first appointment in Centerville, Pennsylvania. There, he met his wife Alice C. Dowler and they were married on August 16, 1892. Together they had five children, two of which were twin boys who died during infancy.

Higley attended Drew Theological Seminary and completed his degree at New York University. Later he completed pastorates in Sherman, New York; Kane and Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Grace Church, Denver, Colorado; and Grace Church, Des Moines, Iowa.

He then gained charge of the Department of Indian Work under the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, and the Woman’s Home Missionary Society. Higley was part of a committee that was called to confer with President Coolidge on Native American matters. Through his work, he was recognized as an authority on Indian Life and customs, and was adopted into the Mohawk and Cherokee tribes.

Higley accepted a call at the College Church in Ames, Iowa, and from Iowa he transferred to Park Ridge, Illinois where he gave services and planned Passion Week and Easter. Besides the many poems, songs, cantatas that he wrote, he was also the author of “Homespun Religion” and “The Sterile Soul”. On March 22, he was giving a service when he fell unconscious and was taken to Evanston Hospital. On Tuesday, March 24, 1931 he died without regaining consciousness.